Megan Gilster is a PhD student in social work and sociology. Her main interests include demography of inequality, race, and ethnicity, and urban communities. Other interests are child and adolescent well-being and program evaluation. Her research has focused on the effects of neighborhoods on individual and community well-being, particularly how policy and practices in neighborhoods act to exacerbate social inequality.
She received her MSW from the University of Michigan in 2003. Her undergraduate degree at Lawrence University was in anthropology and music. Her practice experience has been mainly in the area of program evaluation and community organizing.